1. Field of Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate in general to the field of network management. More specifically, the embodiments of the present invention relate to methods and systems for plugging varbinds in a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) notification.
2. Description of the Background Art
A Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is an application layer protocol, which facilitates exchange of management information between network components such as servers, switches, routers and workstations in a network.
The information exchanged between the network components provides details of an event occurring in the network. The event is defined as an action occurring in the network. An exemplary event can be a link down of a communication link in the network. The link down indicates failure of the communication link between two network components. The SNMP protocol generates a SNMP notification for the event. The SNMP notification is sent to the customers, i.e., users of the network components involved with the event. The SNMP notification is associated with a pre-defined varbind list. The pre-defined varbind list includes one or more varbinds, which provide details of the event to the customers.
A varbind comprises name of a variable corresponding to an event and the value of the variable. A pre-defined varbind list comprises a list of names of variables corresponding to the event in a network and values of the variables. The values of the variables in the pre-defined varbind list provide information about the event occurring in the network. However, in some cases, a customer requires additional details about the event. Therefore, the additional varbinds need to be configured to the pre-defined varbind list associated with the SNMP notification of the event.
Various methods and systems exist for configuring the additional varbinds. One such method is the Network Monitoring System (NMS). In NMS, polling is carried out among the customers in the network to obtain the required varbinds after getting a request for the additional varbinds from one or more customers. The required varbinds are then configured in the pre-defined varbind lists. The configured list is made available to all the customers. However, the polling in NMS results in extra usage of bandwidth of the communication channel or Internet, which, in turn, reduces the speed of information exchange between the network components. Further, the polling leads to congestion in the network.
Another method of configuring additional varbinds is upgrading the version of an operating system of a network component. However, this method of configuring additional varbinds is not specific to the customers. Each customer using the upgraded version of the operating system receives the additional varbinds configured in the predefined varbind lists. Further, this method is not cost efficient, as every time a customer requires an additional varbind, the customer has to upgrade the version of the operating system.